Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

You Have to Be On It

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You Have to be on ItI was talking with a client the other day about their ongoing marketing efforts. Thank you notes, holiday cards, phone calls on birthday’s – they are ON IT. As we were talking about what’s working and what needs to be kept up, they reminded me…

You Have to be on It

Always.

This is one of the hardest things I see for business owners. There’s so many different hats you wear as a business owner, and yes your marketing efforts are one of those hats. I often see people drop their marketing efforts when business gets busy. It’s the worst thing you could do. Why? Because it won’t always be busy and you’re going to need more clients – cultivate them when you have them so they’re ready when you’re ready.

Continue to have good marketing habits throughout the year. Go to your networking events, schedule that call or coffee meeting, even if you don’t think they’re ready to hire you. Send your newsletter, do your follow up, engage on social media. Run your business. Continue to blog (this one might just be a reminder for me…)

Having systems and schedules in place makes your life a whole lot easier. If you haven’t downloaded my free Monthly Marketing Calendar – I give you a good place to start and make sure that you’re considering all the marketing efforts out there and available to you. They’re usually FREE and with some setup it won’t take you much time. You’re busy running your business, keep doing it. And don’t forget to keep on it along the way.

May Pop Culture Round Up

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May Pop Culture Round UpThe Night King is dead, all hail Bran the Broken. May has been a pretty epic Pop Culture month. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and gotten outside to enjoy some beautiful weather on top of the great pop culture that occurred this month!

Reading

In anticipation of the 3rd season of The Handmaid’s Tale, I picked up the graphic novel version of the book. I’m excited for Margaret Atwood’s sequel coming this fall and can’t wait for the new season to start next week. If you’ve read the book and want a quick refresher before The Testaments this is a great way to accomplish that task!

I’m heading to the coast this weekend for some quick R&R and hoping to enjoy a book and maybe a few comics while I’m there. May was a busy month and not enough reading happened…

Listening

I’m sad I didn’t get tickets to Chelsea Handler and I have’t read her new book yet (but it’s on my short list). However, her new podcast Life Will be the Death of Me is great so far. The first interview is with her BFF Mary McCormack who I also really enjoy and their friendship is exactly what I would expect it to be.

My friends were going on a road trip last week and needed a few podcast suggestions. I couldn’t believe how long I’ve been writing my pop culture round up and how many great podcast series I’ve listened to along the way. It’s time for another true crime mini series (please share your suggestions!). In the mean time I think we’ll check out Blackout (the Rami Malick miniseries) and Small Town Dicks which my friend suggested.

Watching

May has been a pretty epic month for TV. I know I’m in the minority but I liked the Game of Thrones Finale. I cheered when we saw Tormond again and cried when Jon & Ghost were reunited. I’m glad Dani isn’t queen and think Bran was a weird choice but it does break a cycle that it will still somehow be destined to repeat. And I’m honestly just glad Tyrion survived. And Arya.

It got pretty dusty in our house for the Big Bang Theory finale. It’s always been such a sweet and fun show, it filled a light hearted TV show hole in my heart that I will now have to fill with something else.

I’m enjoying this final season of Jane the Virgin but wish Jane & Rafael would just GET BACK TOGETHER ALREADY! I’m not as into this season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, so we’ll see if I finish the season. I have watched Wine Country twice so far and it will easily be in my “frequent repeat” collection for the rest of time. I didn’t realize that I needed Paula Pell & Emily Spivey in EVERY MOVIE FOR THE REST OF TIME PLEASE.

Earlier this week we went to Schitt’s Creek Live and it was AMAZING. The highlight was Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara singing God Love’s a Terrier obviously. And maybe the Schitt’s Creek Family Feud which I would have lost. But I did come home with a new Rose Apothocary sweatshirt – hooray!

What pop culture has kept you sane this month? Any good binge’s over Memorial Day? What are you looking forward to with this summer pop culture uptick?

3 Marketing Updates You May Need to Check In On

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3-Marketing-Updates-You-May-Need-to-Check-In-OnThis morning I was thrilled (please note the dripping sarcasm) to see that Mailchimp has decided to completely restructure their billing and their plan offerings. The good news if you already have an account –  you’re safe. But if you need to move to a paid plan (which based on what your automation and list needs are, you might) you are going to probably pay more. I’ve seen a few changes to marketing technology lately and I wanted to share 3 marketing changes that you may want to check in on for your business.

  1. LinkedIn Showcase Pages – I was talking with a client today about how great the LinkedIn Showcase pages are as a compliment to your business page. Then I clicked on mine to show her and the page was in need of a major update. SO – if you’ve had a business page setup on LinkedIn and added featured pages for specific products – it’s time to jump over and make sure it still looks as good as you hoped!
  2. Google My Business – With Google+ gone what’s a small business owner to do to promote their content on Google? Luckily if you have a Google My Business Page setup (and if you don’t stop now and do that first) you can add a post to your account. With G+ you could schedule these out like other social media posts, but with Google My Business you have to manually go in to add in a post. However, I appreciate that GMB will alert you when your post is about to expire so you can go in and post something new. Which you should…
  3. Mailchimp’s Update – If you have Mailchimp take a look at the email they sent out today with their updated terms of use and their new snazzy pricing structure. Reminder – if you already have an account – you’re safe!

Software and marketing tools are constantly changing. These are 3 that just happened to be talking about TODAY that I thought I’d make sure you’re aware of. What software has changed recently that small business owners need to be aware of? Please share in the comments…